This invention relates to cabinets. More specifically, this invention relates to a storage cabinet with improved structural strength.
Traditional free standing unassembled storage cabinets made from metal, plastic, or other materials generally suffer from a few common problems. They are difficult to assemble, too heavy, and/or lack structural strength. As is often the case, cabinets that are too heavy result from attempts to provide structural strength by either forming the cabinet components from material that is relatively thick, or including in the cabinet""s construction a relatively large amount of structural reinforcement to attempt to compensate for cabinet material that is too thin and weak to form a structurally rigid cabinet without such reinforcement. Assembly of free standing cabinets such as these may be time consuming and difficult due to the large number of parts to assemble and/or the increased weight of these parts. Unnecessary weight unduly increases shipping costs.
Storage cabinets are used to hold many different items that will fit, one additional limitation being the capacity of the cabinet to bear a given weight upon its shelves, walls, and other structural components. A free standing cabinet""s structural strength must be able to accommodate progressively heavier loads as a user stores more and/or heavier items therein. Thus, as the cabinet""s intended load carrying capacity is increased, the cabinet""s structural reinforcement normally will be increased by the methods mentioned above to strengthen the cabinet, resulting in cabinets that may be heavy, difficult to assemble and/or expensive due to the increased costs of producing and shipping a cabinet strong enough to bear heavier loads.
Another problem associated with traditional free standing cabinet construction is that cabinets such as these may have abutting double doors with an open gap where the doors meet. This is unsightly and produces an insecure overall appearance.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide an improved storage cabinet that is relatively light weight for intended load capacity while having improved structural strength and rigidity.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide an improved storage cabinet that is easy to assemble.
These and other objectives of the present invention are achieved by providing, in one presently preferred form, a storage cabinet that has specially formed back panels and side panels which, when joined together to create each of the cabinet""s rear corners, form a column at each corner that can bear greater loads than a traditional cabinet""s rear corner. A traditional cabinet corner is often simply formed by joining two overlapping sheets of material. The structure of the cabinets"" rear corner according to the invention is much less prone to buckling under high loads than is a traditional cabinet""s rear corner, thereby enhancing the cabinet""s structural strength. The stability of the cabinet of this invention is further enhanced by the construction of a door stop formed from the front edges of the cabinet""s top and bottom panels. The leading edge of each top and bottom panel is folded so as to create a double thickness of material along the leading edge to form a door stop which is stronger than the same door stop formed without the fold.
In another presently preferred form, a support bracket replaces the door stop formed integrally with the cabinet top and bottom panels.
The objectives of the present invention are further achieved by providing double cabinet doors, the first and second door, in preferred form, each having a center edge with complimentary bends approximately equal to forty-five degrees and one hundred and thirty-five degrees, respectively. These complimentary center edges overlap so there is no direct line-of -sight problem associated with the above mentioned traditional abutting edges on prior art cabinet double doors. When closed and secured the double doors of the present invention do not allow direct line-of-sight access to the cabinet""s contents.
In another presently preferred form. The stability of the cabinet is enhanced by a support flange attached to the side panels and the cabinet""s end panels to help prevent lateral and other forces from bending the side panels and top and bottom panels.
Other advantages of the invention will become more apparent to those of ordinary skill upon review of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.